The End Of The MiniVan Era

[gathermewool]

If our family expands (or our needs do), I'll be pushing really hard for a minivan. My wife was against them, but after a few rentals I think she sees the practicality. YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SEE THE INSIDE!!! before you can take your first step toward kicking the minivan hate. They're not too bad to drive, either.

Note: that "you" was a universal "you", not, you, the OP.

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted by Rmay635703
Originally Posted by JustN89
The minivan is dying off due to people caring about perception. If people were rational and bought the things that would work best for them at the best price, more families would drive minivans.

Why do people buy ugly crossover minivans then?
The naming convention?


Originally Posted by bullwinkle
A lot of midsize "SUVs" seemed to have morphed into minivans, with or without AWD, like Chrysler Pacificas, GMs endless line of smaller SUVs (Equinox, Terrain, others). As long as it's not CALLED a minivan...


Every X-over is just a minivan with a different stance, and usually a more useless rear storage area with an undersized door


Have you ever seen a minivan up-close, let alone inside one? All of what you pictures lack sliding doors and massive amounts of storage capability.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by Railrust
We owned a minivan for a few years until moving into the SUV segment. In some ways I liked the minivan but I'll tell yeah, it was downright deadly in the snow. The weight distribution on the minivan just didn't help the FWD. like the SUV's much better overall.


Great when kids were young and our income was lower … but we loved our Yukon since and 4WD Tahoe now …
Thinking back of having FWD … and even way back an Astro with rear drive … seems a modern version with RWD default and select 4WD (that does AWD and 4Lo too) would be a good machine …
That'd be my surf fisherman rig, LoL
Anyway … far more choices of MV, CUV, SUV these days … go drive ‘em …

 

[4WD]

Wow = an SRT mini van! … Think you have Snagged one for edyvw … we just need to come up with built in baby seats that can be flipped into 15" subwoofers with a flick of the switch
(make sure the seats have weight sensors, please) …

 

[4WD]

I think a 3rd row is getting squeezed into a unibody that lacks the space … and then no cargo space and putting those passengers very close to a rear impact

 

[Jstew]

Originally Posted by gman2304
My daughter-in-law said she'd never own a mini van...until she started having babies. My son bought her a new Sienna about 10 years ago and she's still driving it. She says it's the greatest transportation tool a family could have and she'll have one until her three kids leave the nest.


This is my story, except I'm the husband or "son" here. Almost 200K on the Sienna and about ready for another one. Nothing beats it! Still think GM and Ford were out of their mind for discontinuing them.

 

[Alfred_B]

SUVs are now more comfortable station wagons. So it's not surprising they are so popular.

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
SUVs are now more comfortable station wagons. So it's not surprising they are so popular.



Yep and for smaller families as the trends indicate, the crossover is the right vehicle for that segment.

Minivans make great urban haulers but if you enjoy outdoor recreation then SUVs make total sense.

 

[JC1]

I've owned two minivans since 2006. First van was a 1998 Sienna. In 2015 I was looking to get something newer (USED), but most of them where overpriced and not well maintained. Was able to get a great deal on a 2015 Grand Caravan. Best feature is the Stow N Go, where I don't need to remove the seats if I need to pickup something large.

Sure a pickup would be nice to own, but it's not practical for my application. I will keep this van going for as long as I can. .

 

[Donald]

Its also the size of strollers. I seem to remember an umbrella stroller for my daughters back in the 1980s. It folded up to a compact size. Now the strollers are huge.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted by Rmay635703
Originally Posted by JustN89
The minivan is dying off due to people caring about perception. If people were rational and bought the things that would work best for them at the best price, more families would drive minivans.

Why do people buy ugly crossover minivans then?
The naming convention?


Originally Posted by bullwinkle
A lot of midsize "SUVs" seemed to have morphed into minivans, with or without AWD, like Chrysler Pacificas, GMs endless line of smaller SUVs (Equinox, Terrain, others). As long as it's not CALLED a minivan...


Every X-over is just a minivan with a different stance, and usually a more useless rear storage area with an undersized door


Exactly.

IMO very little utility benefit to mega-SUVs (NOT the suburban, but that's a real truck with real cargo space behind the third seat) over minivans, and as you indicated, less space, worse access (though often the exterior is as bulky to give a truck like look to support vanity).

Not saying I dont like some of them. And the mini size SUVs tend to be pretty useful and utilitarian, if highly inefficient (hybrids are helping that).

What rubs me the wrong way is the general vanity and the implication that one is masculine, young, not their parents, etc. just because they bought a vehicle that is fundamentally a minivan with different sheet metal.

 

[KrisZ]

We got ours, so if people are willing to sacrifice utility and comfort just to avoid the "stigma" of a minivan and drive the minivan segment into extinction, I don't really care.

Minivans are like snow tires, you don't know how great their advantages are until you try it out for yourself. A friend of mine was telling me for years to get a minivan, but I felt it was not worth it. And we made due with sedans when we had two children. But then number three and four came along and I quickly realized sedans or SUVs will not cut it. After we got the minivan I realized just how everything is so much easier and convenient with the minivan setup. They are setup children, child seats, strollers and all sort of other stuff you have to carry with young children.

If I were to do it all over again, I would get it when we "only" had two kids.

 

[Kira]

Remember the expression, "S.A.C.B.P."?

It stands for Stupid American Car Buying Public. Obviously BITOGers aren't in this segment.

How it worked once:
In 1953 Chevrolet noticed nobody was buying white Corvettes.
In 1954 Chevrolet charged a premium for white Corvettes and more people bought them.
The explanation? S.A.C.B.P.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by coopns
We have 4 kids and owned a minivan for about 15 years. I always liked it, great for trips and kids in and out. Lots of storage. We have moved
on to a smaller mid size SUV. I don't see nearly as many around anymore, mostly small SUV's and the big Suburban which around here has
been a kind of replacement for the minivan. Funny I see a Dodge Caravan that we had in 2004 and now looks like something out of the 50's...




Same situation as me. 4 kids and we owned 4 different make/model MVs between 2003-2019. Loved all of them. Traded the last MV for our 2019 Nissan Pathfinder because we rarely, if ever have all 6 in the same vehicle anymore and I wanted something AWD/4x4, affordable, at least as economical as a MV and can still haul 6 if needed.

 

[double vanos]

I'm not a big fan of mini vans but a recent video of the Honda Odyssey LX by honda laura showing the base model changed my perception. The base model is nice and the price was good for what you get. Seems like I'm always hauling or toting something, so for the price, yeah I'd consider it.
In a YouTube universe of only top of the line cars being reviewed, Herb Chambers devotes enough of their videos to base models, which is cool since that's what a lot of people get (affordability). A quick pricing shows new LX's discounted to $29k in the Tucson area. If I was in the market, I'd test drive one ( I can't believe I just said that....)

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted by john_pifer
My problem with minivans is FWD and transaxle. That configuration is simply not as robust or reliable as a heavy-duty, truck-based, body-on-frame, RWD Van or SUV.

Here we go again. Nothing magical about that configuration. It is easier to work on or modify for some unintended uses, yes.

More robust? Try telling me my 4WD Dakota is more robust or reliable than my Pilot or my friends Sienna... I'll quote you service history from memory and send that argument back to the stone age. It has more ground clearance. That is all. Pilot could, and did, tow and haul just as much.

 

[meep]

Loved/hated them.

Probably the most utilitarian vehicles I've owned. fits the family the best, sliding doors in parking lots, could haul plywood, and could haul the band's PA, all in a locked vehicle. decent driving dymanics, they got better on power, and got the comforts down well too.

On the other hand, not a "driver's car," and bulky to drive around solo. The chrysler versions at least, didn't center the steering wheel to the driver's seat, which was a huge turn-off for me. I know it's pretty common - I won't drive GM trucks/SUVs for the same reason. And there were only 3 big offerings in my book at the time, toyota, honda and chrysler, and in many ways they were remarkably similar and each had strong limitations. Honda struggled with the 5AT and door electronics, toyota's pricing was really high for us, and chrysler nagged us with many minor nuisances, though they (2 grand caravans) never left us stranded, ever.

Nothing beat them on family trips. We had a 3-row suv - and the minivan was the family favorite.

Having used them for years, I'm glad to be past them.

I will say the favorite, however was the 4MT VW vanagon. It was the crudest of the bunch, offered the biggest feeling of space, had the worst AC, the best greenhouse, but you got to drive the thing and wrestle with it up hills. Of course it was surely the least safe, and had the worse reliability by a country mile.

 

[Job]

Minivans are huge, Minivans are more like honda crv, rav4, and those. Anything fitting a 4x8 sheet inside with all the doors closed while a full sized short bed pickup can't is not exactly mini. People are just fashion conscious and want to fit in even if otherwise it makes no sense.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by Kira
Remember the expression, "S.A.C.B.P."?

It stands for Stupid American Car Buying Public. Obviously BITOGers aren't in this segment.

How it worked once:
In 1953 Chevrolet noticed nobody was buying white Corvettes.
In 1954 Chevrolet charged a premium for white Corvettes and more people bought them.
The explanation? S.A.C.B.P.



Are you sure? Because then there is "thick vs. thin"........

 

[weebl]

Originally Posted by JustN89
The minivan is dying off due to people caring about perception. If people were rational and bought the things that would work best for them at the best price, more families would drive minivans.


I think that's exactly it.

Go back to about a year and a half ago for me, our family fleet was a 2006 Toyota Sienna, a 2018 VW Tiguan, which was chosen in large part that it could fit 7 (okay, so the back row is just for tiny kids), and our 2013 Silverado 3500. The Silverado was a very purpose specific vehicle, for our towing needs. The Tiguan was my wife's daily driver, a new toy she wanted. The Sienna, during the week, I used as mine, with a very short commute to the park and ride, and usually on weekends as the family hauler due to the bigger space inside for all 5 of us (and sometimes the dogs). It would also be our road trip vehicle when towing wasn't involved.

Fast-forward a few months to when the Sienna was totaled while parked. We began exploring a possible replacement. I, being rational, suggested another minivan. My wife, initially listening more to the emotional side, thought another SUV, for that very reason - they seemed cooler.

So, we shopped around a bit, checked out quite a few large SUVs, did some homework, and concluded that a large SUV had less useful space, poor legroom for the very back row, cost more, used more fuel, cost more to insure, and didn't really give us much cargo space with the back row in use. Which brought her right back around to the minivan I suggested from the start.

In the end, it was shelved to get another vehicle, due in part to uncertainty with my employment. I suggested just using the truck for the odd time we both needed a vehicle, and I just made do, taking transit to work from a block away from home, instead of saving a few minutes driving to the park and ride. Just as well now, a COVID has us all housebound for the most part. The money from insurance is sitting in the bank, and makes a good emergency fund for uncertain times.

But the thing is, when we did our homework, best bang for your buck for an on-the-road only family hauler is still a minivan. When the time comes again to look at a vehicle, at least the homework will be done on what to get. Uncool as it is, a minivan is tough to beat for a family of 5 to 8, and it's quite handy for cargo that you want to carry inside a vehicle, as opposed to an exposed truck bed.